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John D. was raised in a strict, but loving family. The furishings in the house were very simple in line with their parents decision to raise the children plainly. This was in stark contrast to the platial grounds. John Jr. and the other children were raised as if they were from a family of limited income. The family rarely visited and the children did not have childhood friends or schoolmates. A photograph shows John D. Jr. with his only boyhood playmate Harry
Moore, the son of the housekeeper at Forrest Hill. John D. looks to be about 10-11 years old her so the photograph would have been taken about 1884-85. Again John D. Jr. wears a knee pants suit with an Eton collar and long
black stockings. Notice his leather boots (they come up well above his
ankles) and the straw summer hat with a band around it. Harry, his friend, is
somewhat older and wears long trousers and a felt hat pushed boyishly to the
back of his head. His mother is reported to have been pleased when the boy confided to her what he wanted for Christmas one year--so it could be denied him. He is made to keep a ledger of his expenditures. John Jr. was to try this appraoch on his children with less success. The limited allowances as a child contrast with John Jr. later life when his father transferred great quantities of wealth to his son. In one letter to John Jr., for example, he says I have transferred 65 million dollars worth of railroad stock to your account. At age 13 in 1887, John D. Rockefeller Jr. suffers a nervous collapse due to "overwork." He spends the winter at the family's country house, healing through hard physical work.
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